A Place Where People Are Made Whole

Love, acceptance and forgiveness - those three things are absolutely essential to any ministry that will consistently bring people to maturity and wholeness. If the church is to be the force for God in the world that it should be, it must learn to love people, accept them and forgive them.

The church is in the world to minister salvation to people. The word "salvation" in its broadest sense means to bring to wholeness. It's interchangeable with the word "healing".

Within the community of the gathered church, then people need to be saved, healed, and brought to wholeness in every area of their lives. But before there can be a coming to wholeness, certain guarantees must be made to people, otherwise they will not risk themselves to be open with us enough to receive healing.

The guarantee we must make to people is that they will be loved - always, under every circumstance with no exception. The second guarantee is that they will be totally accepted without reservation- The third thing we must guarantee people is that no matter how miserably they fail or how blatantly they sin, unreserved forgiveness is theirs for the asking. If people are not guaranteed these three things, they will never allow us the marvelous privilege of bringing wholeness to them through the fellowship of the church.

According to I John 3:14, the evidence that we're children of God is our love for others... I know I'm a child of God because I love. Today the church of Jesus Christ needs to make a bold commitment to love people and then dedicate itself to fulfilling that commitment. Our whole life-style should tell people, "If you come around here, were going to love you. No matter who you are or what you've done or how you look, smell or behave, we're going to love you."

God so loved the world that God gave. That's it! ...Love is commitment and operates independently of what we feel or do not feel. We need to extend this love to everyone who comes into our Church.

When love, acceptance and forgiveness prevail, the church of Jesus Christ becomes what Jesus was in the world: a center of love designed for the healing of broken people, and a force for God.